Fri Jan 04, 2013 at 12:26:51 PM EST

While Barack Obama declared victory in the fiscal cliff theater, the mean streets of Detroit Friday brought a sobering reminder of the country's biggest loss - and the president's failure to address it.

Detroit is Murder Capital once more with a bloody 53 murders per 100,000 residents, returning to murder numbers not seen since the horrific 1970s (and soaring above 2006's 47 per 100,000 rate when Detroit was last Number One).

If the president's refusal to embrace Washington's fundamental spending problems is irresponsible, his refusal to address Detroit (and inner city America's) fundamental family implosion is a matter of life and death.

He does allow, for an entire sentence, that it's not really all the president's fault ... right before launching into a litany of reasons that it's all the president's fault. The most hilarious of those involves the president's traditional nuclear family.

Why do we keep picking on poor Henry? Because the man gets invited on Detroit-area Tee Vee shows to help promote civic discourse. If you ever wonder why our politics has been dragged so low, there's a clue in that relationship.

Well, yes, the Obamas embody the ideal of a successful, loving two-parent nuclear family that is increasingly rare in modern society. So what does Payne want Obama do about it? Shut his yap about health care, that’s what.

Yes, well that about sums things up nicely. If Barack Obama had ignored health care and instead used his unique position as part of a successful two-parent nuclear family, Henry Payne would be bitching about how he spent time worrying about local issues instead of addressing health care. He's the guy who, if you're out on the town with him, will ask when you order the vegetarian dish for dinner what you have against beef.